After six weeks of the season, most NFL teams know if they’ll be buyers or sellers before the trade deadline.
Here’s one move each team in the NFC East should make before the Nov. 5 trade deadline at 4 p.m. ET.
Dallas Cowboys: Acquire Carolina Panthers RB Miles Sanders
To the surprise of nobody, Dallas now has the NFL’s worst running game, with 77.2 yards per contest. Meanwhile, Sanders is currently the Panthers No. 2 running back with 56 fewer carries than Chuba Hubbard, who’s rushed for 387 more yards this year.
The Cowboys know Sanders from his four seasons as a Philadelphia Eagle, and everyone knows he’ll see even fewer carries now that Jonathon Brooks, Carolina’s second-round pick in this year’s draft, appears ready to practice after starting the season on the IR with an ACL injury.
Sanders has just 530 yards in 22 games as a Panther but helped lead Philadelphia to Super Bowl LVII with a team-high 1,269 yards in 2022. Dallas needs whatever he has left in the tank.
New York Giants: Trade WR Darius Slayton
Slayton had 179 yards and a score, while teammate Malik Nabers sat out the Giants’ last two games with a concussion. With Nabers likely to return for this week’s game against the Eagles, his trade value will never be higher.
A fifth-round pick in 2019, Slayton never put up big numbers in New York, but with 82 games played, he could be an asset for teams starting young quarterbacks like Denver and New England.
Philadelphia Eagles: Acquire New England Patriots DE Deatrich Wise Jr.
NFL rules prohibit Haason Reddick’s return to Philadelphia, and the Raiders appear unwilling to deal Maxx Crosby. So, how does Philadelphia fix a pass rush that’s broken? The Patriots might have a guy.
Wise joined the Patriots as a fourth-round pick in 2017 and has 298 tackles and 31 sacks with the team. He’ll be a free agent at the end of the season and could be expendable with fellow defensive end Keion White, a second-round pick in 2023, leading the team with four sacks.
Philadelphia’s pass rush has struggled all year. Five of the team’s 11 sacks came against the 1-5 Cleveland Browns last week. Bryce Huff, who signed a three-year, $51M deal to replace Reddick this offseason, has just four tackles and a half sack in five games.
Wise may not move the needle for hyperactive Eagles fans, but he’d fit nicely with the team.
Washington Commanders: Acquire Cincinnati Bengals WR Tee Higgins
The Commanders may be scoring the second-most points per game (29.7) in 2024, but if the team has playoff aspirations, it needs to do better than the three-headed monster of Dyami Brown, Noah Brown and Olamide Zaccheaus as the team’s No. 2 receiver.
According to ESPN, the Bengals have just a 35 percent chance of making the playoffs, and another loss or two could force Cincinnati’s hand in dealing its No. 2 receiver.
Higgins has 25 catches for 259 yards and two scores this year but is unlikely to be with the team next year after reluctantly accepting the franchise tag in 2024.
Higgins certainly isn’t the receiver that led Cincinnati with 1,455 yards in 2021, but he’d make an excellent target for rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and a nice complement to No. 1 receiver Terry McLaurin.
